


Bad memories

by SmugLookingBarrel



Series: Judge not, lest ye be judged [4]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2016-10-02
Packaged: 2018-08-19 01:38:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8184137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmugLookingBarrel/pseuds/SmugLookingBarrel
Summary: Frisk finds themselves in the True lab, which is a lot less inviting now that they weren't invited in. It seems like the other humans remember this place... And not fondly.





	

“You have to wake up! It’s not safe here!”

“I… uh…”

“Hurry! Get up! The necromancer is coming for you!”

“The… who…?”

“You can’t let the necromancer catch you! You have to get out of here.”

I turn around, and spot… something terrifying. What looks like… a massive dragon head, with four curved horns and a gaping maw, roars at me. It seems to distort as it does so, bending the world around it. I scream, and the next moment, I’m awake. 

As I regain consciousness, I notice three things: Firstly, it hurts. It’s not the agony I felt when that spear was burning through me, but it’s certainly not pleasant. My head is throbbing, and my chest hurts. Secondly, I appear to be in some sort of… hospital bed. Odd… Thirdly, I have absolutely no idea where I am, and that’s really bad. I sit bolt upright, and take in my surroundings. I’m in… what appears to be a hospital, if you left one to rot for a hundred years. I stand in a room filled with beds, all of which appear to be empty. I can feel my heart beating faster. Then, inside my head, I hear a voice:

“Nononononono, we’re here again! Not here! I don’t want to be back here!”

“I don’t want to do it again! Please, just kill me!”

“Whoa, whoa, everyone calm down! What’s going on?”

“This is… the place. The place where… where I…”

The voice couldn’t seem to get another word out. Clearly, something terrible had happened to the other humans here, and I wasn’t anxious to find out what. 

“You have to get out of here before the necromancer catches you!”

I wanted to ask who “the necromancer” was, but I’m sure the other humans were traumatized enough without me bringing that up. I rose to my feet, and headed down the nearest hallway. It’s an odd hallway, one side filled with mirrors, and the other houses a shelf with… a bunch of potted plants. Quietly, I creep down the hall. I come to… some sort of computer screen, that flashes on when I get close to it. On the screen is a single message:

ENTRY NUMBER 7:  
We’ll need a vessel to wield the monsters SOULS when the times comes. After all, a monster cannot absorb the SOULS of other monsters. Just as a human cannot absorb a human soul. So then… What about something that’s neither human nor monster? 

A… vessel. Were they trying to create… some sort of weapon? Why would they need something that could absorb monster souls? The thought scared me, but I had to keep moving. I approach another screen, and it lights up as well. 

ENTRY NUMBER 10:  
Experiments on the vessel are a failure. It doesn’t seem to be any different from the control cases. Whatever. They’re a hassle to work with anyway. The seeds just stick to you, and won’t let go… 

It looks like that project never went anywhere. But what did they mean about… the seeds?  
I keep walking down the hallway. These mirrors are creepy, all along the wall, staring, and seeing someone stare back. It almost feels like… I’m being watched. 

!

…

: )

I spot it in the mirror first, something moved in the shadows. I whirl around… and see nothing. Slowly, I back up, eyes darting desperately to try and spot what it was. Just as I’m about to dismiss it as my head playing tricks on me, a voice in my head shouts “behind you!”

Behind me, is a creature from hell. 

It has a large head, with what looks like… some sort of beak, and a single, large eyeball that also somehow has fangs. The rest of its body it incredibly thin, and seems to almost move independently of the head, sometimes reshaping itself. The massive creature starts towards me and I run down the hall as fast as I can. Unfortunately, I quickly come to a dead end. I press myself against the wall and my mind races furiously. Just as it reaches me, I hear a voice in my head. One of the other humans. They’re crying. 

“Hey, it’s ok, it’s ok. I won’t let that thing hurt you.” I said, as if I had any idea how to fix what was happening. I just wanted to comfort the kid. They were one of the younger ones, and they seemed terribly frightened. 

I turned and faced the monster. “Look, I don’t care who you are, you’re not going to hurt…”

Only, I saw that… the monster was also crying. It's curled up into a ball on the floor, and tears are running down its single eye. It seemes to be breathing heavily. 

“What the heck is going on?” I ask, even as realization dawns on me. 

“You… are you… that thing? Did the monsters down here… make you into THAT?”

The voice in my head is almost screaming now, breathing fast and shallow. A quick glance at the monster confirmed it's doing the same. I want to comfort the child, but… I don’t know how. What do you say to someone who was turned into… something like that? No wonder they were scared of this place. 

“Oh… my god.”

I walk back the other way, trying to put as much distance as possible between myself and that… thing. I head back into the bedroom and down another hallway, hoping that this time I would find a way out. There are more screens, but I don’t want to waste time reading them, now that I knew what lurks in this place. After a few twists and turns, I come across a strange room. There are… operating beds… on one wall, and a set of sinks on another. And out of one of the sinks comes… another hideous creature. 

This one is odd. It's… a jumble of faces, all fused together into a single mass, that oozes out of the sink. Inside me, I feel one of the humans start to freak out. This one doesn't cry, but I can sense their apprehension. They speak in a hoarse voice. 

“It’s… it’s me. Look what they… did to me.”

I look down at this creature. It too is shaking in fear. I hear a strange noise… coming from my cellphone.

“Come closer… show you…”

After a moment’s pause, I start towards the creature.

“Yesss…you see…”

I reach out my hand towards it, and the voice inside my head screams frantically.

“NO! DON’T TOUCH THE MEMORYH…”

My hand touches the soft mass, and moments later, everything goes white. 

…

I open my eyes. I seem to be in the same room as I was before, only I’m lying on one of the operating tables. I try to stand up, and am shocked to realize that I can’t. I look at my hands, and realize they’re bound to the table. I also realize… they’re not my hands. A quick glance at the rest of me confirms my suspicions: I’m in someone else’s body. I thrash furiously, but to no avail. I hear voices in the other room, and stop moving so that I can hear them clearly. 

“You know how much I hate doing it.”

Now there’s a voice I would recognize anywhere, the murderer himself. 

“Yes, but you’re really good at it, Sans. Monsters need you. We’re getting closer now, only three more after this one and then we’ll be free!”

No, there’s no way I was hearing that right… Alphys?

“Yea, but that means I have to do this three more times. Do you know how hard it is? Making friends with a human, hanging out with them, knowing that you have to betray them? Knowing that they’ll be sent here?”

Sans… 

“I know it’s hard, Sans. But it is the best way. You saw what happened when we tried to take one by force, they caused major havoc! It got ASGORE to implement the curfew!”

“Yea, can’t forget about the curfew. All the monsters lock themselves away, it’s just me and a human kid, alone together, chatting for however long it takes for me to gain the human’s trust, only for me to stab them in the back. I have to see the look in their eyes, too. It’s the same look every time, a look of ‘I trusted you, how could you do this to me?’ It… it hurts, Alphys. It hurts so much. I don’t want to do it anymore.”

“I’m sorry, Sans. There really isn’t a better way. These humans are our only chance, and if even one of them escapes, it could mean hundreds more years trapped down here. This way, they get to the lab without a fight.”

“Yea, with a bone through their heart.”

Part of me was utterly furious at Sans, betraying the trust of a child, over and over, sending them here… I could barely hold back the urge to scream. Another part of me was terrified as to what might happen to me, knowing that the other humans ended up as… those things. 

“Sans, you clearly need to take some time off. Go get some rest, maybe spend some time with your brother…”

“NO! I could never… Papyrus can’t ever know what I’m doing, Alphys! I can’t go back to him right now, I just can’t.”

“You… still haven’t told him what you’re doing?”

“Of course not! It would break his heart! He’s the one thing that keeps me sane, keeps me going. If he were to find out, I… I don’t know WHAT I would do, Alphys.”

“Either way, you need to get some rest. I’m sure you don’t want to look at the human again, so let me see to the rest of it.”

“Okay, Alphys. I’ll… see you later.”

Sans walks out of the room, and as soon as he’s out of earshot, Alphys starts mumbling to herself. 

“Dammit, Sans! You think you’re the only one this is hard for? You think you’re the only who’s   
breaking at having to abduct children and kill them? I have to stand here and rip out their determination while they’re still alive, screaming at me!”

At those words, I panicked. Desperately, I tried to break free, but my hands and feet were bound to the table with metal restraints, there was no way I could escape. The only option that remained… was to try and talk Alphys into letting me go, somehow. 

“Alphys… please. I’m scared. What’s going on?”

Alphys turned to look at me, the expression on her face was one of anguish. 

“Kid… I’m… so sorry. But I have to do this. I could get you a drug to calm you down, if you want.”

“I don’t want to be calmed down! I want to go home! I want to see mom and dad again!”

“You’ll see them soon, kid. I can… promise you that.”

“Are all monsters like that skeleton? Do you all pretend to be nice when you’re really all… evil?”

“No, but… I am. I’m a terrible monster. I know you probably hate me.”

“You… don’t sound so bad. Can we just…”

“No.”

“B-but… why not? Everyone can change, Alphys. Everyone can be a good person, if they try.”

“I… admire your optimism, kid. But I stopped believing that a long time ago. I will never be a good person, not after the things I’ve done.”

“Will this hurt?”

“I’m sorry to say… yes. It will. We need you alert during the process to get the maximum amount of Determination from you.”

“Alphys?”

“Y-yes?”

“Will you… hold my hand?”

“I… uh…”

“Please?”

“…OK.”

With that, Alphys grabs my hand, and the table starts moving. I’m heading down the halls, I pass a room I recognize, the room with the beds, and take another path I haven’t gone before. Alphys’ hand feels warm, and I squeeze it softly. I feel a chill run up her arm as I do so. She won’t look at me. Soon after, the table stops moving. We’ve arrived at our destination. 

I stare up at the most terrifying machine in the world.


End file.
